Head, Public Affairs of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Dr Fabian Benjamin, has pledged to continue its practice of remitting its operating surpluses to government, saying that the remittances were in line with global best practice.
According to him, it is a known fact that all unutilized funds by Ministries, Departments and Agencies should be returned to the public treasury.
He said that the board and public-spirited Nigerians were, therefore, at a loss as to the reasons for the various campaigns of calumny mounted by some individuals who feel that these remittances should not be made.
He said, “The board reiterates that it is not within the powers of MDAs to determine the uses for which the remitted funds are put to.
“Theirs is to comply with extant directive while those given the mandate to manage the national treasury have the responsibility of appropriating and channelling such remittances.
“This is in the overall interest of the public, to identify areas of need or rather whichever area of the national economy that they perceive to be in most need of resources.
“It would be recalled that the humongous remittances are the first in the history of the four-decade-old agency.
“The first landmark remittance was made in 2017 and the feat was repeated in subsequent years, in line with its belief that rules are made to be obeyed and, at any rate, the Board does not believe it should hold onto money that does not belong to it.
“It might interest these armchair critics that a direct fallout of the remittances was the decision of the Federal Government to reduce the cost of the purchase of the e-pin from N5,000 to N3,500, the cheapest globally.
“It is a truism in policy making that certain trends should be observed over a period of time before policy pronouncements are made.
He explained that the decision to reduce the price of application documents was contingent upon the observation that even if the price were to be slashed, the board would be able to conduct its examination unhindered.
“In addition, it might also interest the public to know that never in the history of tertiary institutions in Nigeria have the institutions benefited from the Board’s operations as they now do.
“For instance, a huge chunk of these surpluses are ploughed back to the tertiary institutions through the National Tertiary Admissions Performance Merit Award and other platforms.
“ Furthermore, many critical segments of the society, the intellectual community, the civil society groups, among others, have all been included in the management of the Board’s operational processes not only to add value to its service delivery but also to make for inclusiveness.
“All these, which were hitherto impossible, had been made possible as a result of the prudent management of resources which has enabled the Board to prosecute these aspirations.”
NAN
